By TINTSWALO BALOYI
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – DESPITE the advantages of emerging technologies, decision-makers still need to secure their organisations’ data and realise it remains the key behind business success.
This is according to Kaspersky Lab Africa, the continent’s leading cyber security company, which maintains the importance of securing the data centre in the digital age.
“To adapt to this [data-driven] environment, companies are expanding their data centres. Often, the focus turns to capacity and redundancy with only a passing thought given to security. But given the potential disastrous consequences of not protecting sensitive back-end data, this must change,” said Kaspersky Lab Africa General Manager, Riaan Badenhorst.
He used as an example the recent statistics showing the US government reported its agencies were exposed to more than 30 000 cyber security incidents last year.
While only a handful of these attacks were treated as major incidents, the sheer volume should be cause for concern, Badenhorst said.
“There are those that argue that the White House is a major target and these figures should not be all that surprising. However, the reality is that every organisation irrespective of size has crosshairs painted on it. It is not a case of if a security breach occurs but rather when,” he said.
According to Kaspersky Lab’s findings, on average, a single cyber security incident now costs large businesses $861 000.
The financial impact this could have on operations is severe. It is not inconceivable to think that smaller business could face closing their doors in the event of such a loss,” said the expert.
– CAJ News